


Interview Skills

by odditycollector



Category: Superman Returns (2006)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-20
Updated: 2006-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 05:01:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1632887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/odditycollector/pseuds/odditycollector
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Do you ever feel like the whole world is running around in some sort of stupid morality play, and the casting director forgot to give you your part?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interview Skills

**Author's Note:**

> Written for trascendenza

 

 

Clark is waiting for him in one of the break rooms. He's done his best to make it seem like a proper office: the table has been cleared of magazines and donut crumbs and, for the moment, exhausted interns.

"Thanks for agreeing to the interview."

Richard grins at him. "We work in the same building," he says. "It wasn't too far out of my way." He sits in the chair across from Clark. "You wanted to know about Bruce Wayne?"

Clark nods, and his glasses threaten to fall off his face. He adjusts them, squints experimentally at Richard, adjusts them again. He shuffles quickly through his notes.

"Yes. I, uh, understand that you were friends in college?"

"My uncle told you that." Clark raises a few fingers in a noncommittal gesture, and Richard says, "We weren't friends. Bruce wasn't really looking for friends. More like." Richard pauses, thoughtful. "Allies."

"And were you?" asks Clark. "An ally?"

"I don't know," says Richard. "I don't think so. Bruce--"

"I have to go," Clark says. He grimaces at Richard too thoroughly to be convincing. "Migraine." Clark sweeps his notes into a binder and bolts through the door.

"Um. Okay," Richard says across to the empty desk.

"Mr. Kent! Mr. Kent!" Jimmy rushes into the break room, his eyes wide . "Oh, hi, Mr. White," he says. "Have you seen Clark?"

"He just left," Richard says. "What's going on."

"Giant robots are attacking Metropolis City Bank!" Jimmy says. He climbs onto the table to turn the wall television on, and they both watch twenty-foot high machines lumber away from the news cameras.

The telecaster's voice changes pitch as a red and blue blur swoops in to save the day.

*

"Feeling better?" asks Richard.

Clark shrugs and nods. "Yeah," he says. "Thanks." He scatters his notes back over his side of the table and sits down. "Where were we?"

Richard leans back. "Bruce didn't want friends. And...." Clark is grimacing again. "You have to go?"

"Yeah, I." Clark points to his temple and grimaces even more. "How about we pick this up later?"

"Sure," says Richard. Clark is already outside.

A few seconds pass before the door swings open again. "Hey, Jimmy," says Richard.

"Hey, Mr. White! You'll never guess what's happening now! All the cats in the city have been brainwashed into invading the police station and freeing the criminals!"

They switch on the television. Thousands of cats are indeed swarming the street in front of the station like a mewling, calico coloured sea. A few intrepid beat-cops make their way across the sidewalk, stepping very carefully.

Superman appears on scene, hovering over the animals. He confers with the police, then flies off, returning with what seems to be a giant kitty carrier.

Jimmy sighs. "Mr. Kent's going to be really sore he missed this."

Halfway across Metropolis, Superman is finished rounding up the cats. He winks at the camera and takes to the air.

*

Lois would never have been anyone other than Lois Lane, star reporter. She's too good at uncovering secrets and too bad at keeping them.

"Can I ask you a question?" Richard asks over lunch. Lois' face goes rigid. "About Clark," Richard says, and her face drops again in relief. Whatever she's hiding, it's something else.

"What do you want to know?"

"He left around the same time Superman did, right?" Richard asks.

"Yeah, I guess so." Lois shrugs. "A lot of people did. I guess it wasn't the same Metropolis without Superman." She stabs down hard with her fork and skewers an egg roll, but doesn't bring it to her mouth. They both stare at it for a few moments, wounded and bleeding plum sauce.

"You want to talk about it?" says Richard.

"No," Lois says. "Maybe. No." She pulls her fork free of the egg roll, stabs it again. "Not yet."

"Okay," says Richard.

Lois looks up at him. "It's just... do you ever feel like the whole world is running around in some sort of stupid morality play, and the casting director forgot to give you your part?"

"You have no idea."

*

"But no," Richard says, "I wasn't surprised that Bruce Wayne left. Whatever he was looking for, he didn't find it in college."

Clark makes a mark on his paper. He glances up at Richard, and doesn't glance away.

Richard shifts. "Anything else you want to know?"

Clark looks down and fingers his notes nervously. "Actually," he says. "One more question, if you don't mind. It's about Lois."

"Well, I can't promise any national secrets, but shoot."

"How is she," Clark asks, "really? She seems so distracted."

Richard looks at him for a few moments, then sighs. "She's good," he says. "She's fine."

Clark makes an attempt at grinning wryly, but it mostly fails. "We used to talk, before I... left." He pushes his notes into his binder. "I guess it's good to know that someone's looking out for her."

"Yeah," says Richard, thinking of blue and red, and that Lois used to talk to Richard, too. "It is."

Clark thanks him, gets to his feet. Grabs his binder. Puts down his binder. Shakes Richard's hand for a little too long. Lets go a little too suddenly.

Leaves.

Returns, momentarily, for his notes.

Leaves.

*

Richard flies out until he finds a section of ocean clear of any boats or other planes. He circles for a few minutes, enjoying the sound of the air roaring past the propeller, and then angles the nose of the plane up. He loses airspeed abruptly, the engine whining at him and warning lights flickering red.

Richard doesn't ease up until the engine stutters and stops and the plane lists into a spin, giving into the stall. He's not high, only just over a thousand feet, and the lowest clouds whip by quickly, leaving him with a great view of the ocean.

And he should pull back now, Richard thinks. Kick the engine into life now. The panels beep at him to do something, he's done the drill, it's up to him to save himself... But the plane slows suddenly in its descent and levels off.

Superman is visible in the front of the plane. He's looking at Richard stoically, but Richard imagines he sees a crease of confusion around Superman's eyes.

"What are you doing?" Superman says, loud enough that Richard can hear him in the cockpit.

Richard thinks of the plain, neatly styled cards Clark has sitting on his desk at the Planet. "You didn't exactly leave your number," Richard says, and wonders if he's lying, technically.

He wonders if he's technically telling the truth.

Richard has a lot of questions, most of which are some variation on the one he asks. "Why did you leave?"

"I gave this interview," says Superman says. "It was published in the Daily Planet, front page. I'm surprised you missed it."

"I read the article," says Richard. "I thought you sidestepped the question quite nicely. I'm surprised Lois let you."

Superman doesn't answer right away, and the plane's radio clamours for Richard's attention. He assures the concerned flight tower he's fine, and then he turns down the volume.

He turns back to Superman. "Why did you leave," he asks again.

"I'm not... from around here," Superman finally says. "I suppose I thought that, if I found my planet, I would find myself."

"And then you came back," Richard says.

Superman smiles. "That's the catch to searching for yourself," he says. "Wherever you go..."

"There you are," Richard finishes.

"Exactly." Superman nods. "So I came home." He smiles again at Richard, and then tilts his head back to Metropolis, listening to something far out of Richard's hearing range.

"Let me guess," Richard says. "You have to go?"

"Yes," Superman says. He sounds almost regretful. "Do you want me to drop you off at the airport?"

"No," says Richard. He starts the plane's engine again. "Thanks, but I think I'll carry on. I can find my own way back, and it's a great day for flying."

 

 

 


End file.
